Sufficiently Advanced Magic
by Phalanxx
Summary: What happens when Harry Dresden meets Nanoha Takamachi while investigating a lead? Why, hilarity happens. Post Small Favor for Dresden Files, a few years past Nanoha A's.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**:

I own neither of the fictions present in this work of fiction.

Dresden Files is copyright Jim Butcher.

Someone else owns Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

**Timeline**:

Post Small Favor for Dresden Files. A few years post Nanoha A's.

**Chapter 1**

It was about 8 p.m. when my phone rang. I picked it up and Mac's voice came from the other side "Someone's here to speak to you."

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Regular." The way it was spoken meant it wasn't anyone I knew. That was good. During the years I have made a lot of enemies, in and out of the supernatural community, and my friends usually come directly to me. Being a regular client of McAnally's meant either it was someone who belonged to Chicago's supernatural community, or someone who knew about it.

"Now?"

"Huh." I could almost see his shrug through the phone.

"Sure, give me half an hour."

I hang up and turned finding Mouse in front of me. One of my pets, Mouse was a Foo dog, a race of very big, very though magical dogs. Foo dogs also possess a very keen intellect and that, aside from Mouse's bear-like qualities made him a very dangerous grey-shaped pet.

"Come on boy," I said putting on my black leather duster. "We're off to see the bartender."

Forty minutes later we arrived at McAnally's, after spending half the time trying to find a parking space in Chicago, and entered. McAnally's was a tavern neatly tucked away at the end of an alley, beneath one tall building. It was an old place lit by candles and kerosene lamps, and it smelled of wood smoke and steaks. The tavern room is low-ceilinged with thirteen ceiling fans spinning lazily throughout the place. Thirteen hand-carved wooden pillars, each one describing a supernatural scene or creature, held up the low ceiling. There were also thirteen tables scattered about the room, and the bar had thirteen stools in it.

This layout was not made because of some thirteen fetish Mac might have had. It was meant to disperse dangerous or destructive energies that any potential client might have. It also had a calming effect in any practitioner that came inside, and it did a little warding against more dangerous magic. It wasn't this setup that made McAnally's a truly safe place for the members of the supernatural community however, it was the little sign on the wall just inside the door where you could read "ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY". That meant that the signatories of the Unseelie Accords had deemed this tavern as a safe-place, no one was supposed to start any kind of conflict inside this place and any who did might have to deal with the signatories of the Accords. Most of the really powerful magical beings on the planet were signed in the Accords, some in groups, others as individuals, and nobody wanted to piss them off. I am a member of one of the groups that signed the Accords, the White Council of wizards.

There were some clients spread around the tavern, not as much as there would be later in the night, but a good amount nonetheless. These were people that had a small magical talent and usually used McAnally's to either discuss the last rumors of the supernatural community or talk about the art without fear of being discovered by normal humans.

I approached Mac in the bar "Mac," I said.

"Harry." Then he nodded his head towards a table perhaps twenty feet away of where I was. Mac has a way with words, or rather a way of talking without them.

In the table a seemingly normal looking older gentleman sat, with pale skin and dark hair sporting a little gray. It was someone I already had seen on McAnally's more than once, usually in the presence of some other practitioners.

I started walking and sat at his table. He startled, but relaxed when he saw who I was. Mouse meanwhile reclined himself against my legs.

"Warden Dresden," He said, nodding his head a little.

The White Council is basically the government to which all humans practitioners of magic must respond to. Not all practitioners can enter the White Council, only a small percentage of them had the power and control to become members, and those that did became wizards. Despite this Council laws were to be followed by every human practitioner of magic.

There were only seven laws of magic, but the violation of these results in the capture and trial of the lawbreaker, and in the vast majority of cases the accused is found guilty and executed. Some exceptions do occur, like me. When I was younger I violated the first law of magic "Thou shalt not kill by use of magic". The only thing that saved my life was that I had used said magic in self-defense and that the person who would later become my mentor vouched for me, and agreed to take me in. If he hadn't, my head would have been cut-off by a very sharp sword. The White Council can be old school like that.

The Grey Wardens are both the police and the military of the White Council, the ones responsible for finding who breaks the laws of Magic and also responsible for fighting the Council wars. A few years ago in the last Wizard-Vampire war a lot of good wardens were killed and the Council was forced to recruit wizards wherever they could. Taking my luck into account it wasn't any surprise that I got conscripted.

"Mister …?" I asked.

"Mark Simmons, I apologize for making you come here, but" Here he made a gesture that was a mixture between a shrug and a twisting of shoulders. He looked about fifty, perhaps fifty-five years old, with some wrinkles starting to show on his pale face. His voice was steady and audible, but showed some uncertainty about something, not fear per se but perhaps some reluctance about whatever it was he was going to talk about.

"But…?" I pressed. He fidgeted for a few seconds before speaking.

"Yesterday, I was inspecting some warehouses, on the west side of the city, nothing serious but some of the inventory didn't stack up," It seemed that whatever reluctance Mister Simmons had had disappeared, his voice got firmer and he unconsciously righted his back. "It was when I started to leave, around midnight that something strange happened. I was entering my car when I heard someone talking a little further away from where I was standing; it isn't a rare occurrence to find people at those hours there, many of those warehouses sometimes work during the night, but for some reason I got curious and walked a few feet to where I could see them. They were strange." Here he stopped and drunk a sip from a bottle of Mac's dark.

"What did you find strange about them?" I asked.

"Their clothes and the language they spoke. Mister Dresden I consider myself an fairly educated man, I've spent a good amount of time traveling outside of the US, visiting different countries and I speak three different languages. The language those men were speaking was one I didn't recognize from anywhere I had been before, or even heard on television. Granted that doesn't mean anything, I am not a languages expert, but it wasn't just the way they spoke. They were dressed strangely, in some kind of armor or uniform, I couldn't tell very well."

"They could have been going to some party. Kids these days make the most strange of parties, and in even stranger places." Even as I said it I doubted it was something that simple, it was simply that kind of day.

"Maybe," He conceded with a small nod "But they were carrying something like staves and," Reluctance showed again on his voice. "I see myself as having very good instincts, Mister Dresden, and my instincts were saying those three men were dangerous and magical, so I left. Earlier today I asked Mac to contact you for me. I didn't want to make you lose time, but I thought it would be better to tell you about what I saw, even if it turns to be nothing in the end."

I looked Mark Simmons over and what I saw made me sigh mentally, he looked like a serious and responsible person that with some reluctance contacted the authorities to talk about something strange he saw. There was no way this was some kind of prank. Didn't mean it wasn't a trap though.

We talked a bit more; I asked a few more questions and a few minutes later Mister Simmons left.

I spent a few seconds looking at a scrap of paper with the directions of where Simmons had seen the mysterious three men and then looked at my dog.

"What do you think?"

Somehow Mouse, turning his head in just the right way, and managed to convene all the meaning a good shrug should have.

"Yeah, me too."

.

.

After a steak and a bottle of Mac's dark, we went on our way. The warehouse was on the other side of the town, and at that hour it would took us almost an hour to get there.

A few of the warehouses we passed were still functioning, despite the time. Big blocky things with barely any thought given for any aesthetical purposes. The warehouse Mister Simmons told me about was one such building, big, blocky and made of unpainted concrete.

Parking the Blue Beetle outside the warehouse I started walking in the direction the strange men were heard talking, my ears open and my magical senses ready to detect anything unusual. I had my staff on one hand, my blasting rod was on one of my duster's inner pockets and I also had brought my .44 with me. On my wrist was my ever trusting shield bracelet and in one of my hands I had my kinetic rings, I was ready to face whatever came ahead.

Half an hour later boredom had settled in. I walked around the nearby warehouses and hadn't found anything suspicious, neither magical nor mundane. There also wasn't anyone around that I could see. I spent a few more minutes walking around the place before I stopped close to one of the big warehouses around.

There wasn't anything suspicious that I could fund around, it was late at night and tomorrow early I had a lesson to give to my apprentice. Maybe I should come back during the day and ask some questions around; try to find out if someone saw something worth seeing. I started thinking I got lucky after all.

It was at that moment that the wall next to me exploded.

I got lucky then. The way the wall exploded made most of the debris crash a couple of feet in front of me. Problem was I am not that lucky, so some debris did came in my direction.

I have a magically-reinforced leather duster. I have a magically-reinforced _black_ leather duster which, besides being awesome, it's practical and it saved my life more than a few times. The enchantments on it made it able to spread the kinetic energy of any impact the duster suffers. I had people shooting me with small hand-guns and barely felt it. Once I had a white-court vampire shooting me with an assault rifle and even though that hurt it didn't manage to penetrate my duster. Which was why when a soccer-ball sized of concrete crash into me it only felt like a professional football player was using me for tackle practice. It hurt like hell.

I lay dazed for a few seconds on the ground before I managed to climb back up to my feet. It was then that I realized my staff wasn't as lucky as I was.

"Hell's Bells." I cursed.

On the wall in front of me now existed a hole eight feet tall and around four feet wide. Inside colored flashes of light appeared every couple of seconds. I could feel the magic being flung inside, which either means there used to be some kind of ward in place that hid magic or they only starting using magic recently.

Like when someone decided to blow up the wall next to me.

Going forward with extra care I looked inside the warehouse. There I could see that what seemed a magic duel was taking place. That was if wizards had decided to grow wings and start flying magical duels. There were three different people fighting, but they were going around fast enough that I couldn't quite identify them. A bigger flash of pink light happened, a crash was heard and the combatants seemed to come to a standstill for a moment.

On one side there was some young woman dressed in what appeared to be a white and blue dress. Fighting her seemed to be two of the men Simmons told me about. One of them was in the air like the young woman on the other side, while the other one seemed to have crashed into the ground near his flying partner.

In an instant the fight resumed between the flying combatants.

I couldn't quite track them with my vision, they were moving extremely fast, leaving what seemed to be colored blurs behind them. For a second I thought this was what Wile E. Coyote must have felt trying to catch the Road Runner and I had to swallow in order to not release the nervous laugh that was bumbling in my throat.

It was then that a small light started to shine from where downed wizard was.

Some of my female friends sometimes say I am chauvinist pig, because I think men should do everything they can to make women's life easier. I can't help that, it was how I was raised and in certain occasions it almost got me in trouble, when some not so innocent women used that to their advantage.

I don't know if it was that trait of mine or maybe something about how unfair a two-on-one fight was, but I decided to interfere.

In one of my hands I use a series of silver rings, twelve in total, that store kinetic energy from any movement that hand makes. Each individual ring can pack quite a punch being able to flip a car when it's full. I reached with some of the energy stored in one of the rings and hit the wizard head on. I hit him harder than I wanted to.

He didn't know I was there and besides that he had being busy preparing some kind of spell. My attack threw him almost fifteen feet through the air and he only stopped there because he hit one of the pillars supporting the warehouse. I winced, that had been way too much energy and I could only hope he was still alive. Which was way it came as a great surprise when he simply shook his head as if dazed and turned to me.

Definitely not human then.

He snarled and thrust his staff forward. A greenish ball of magic came out of it and raced towards where I was. I raised my shield bracelet, focused my power and raised my shield. The ball of magic hit my shield like a Mack truck provoking an explosion of light, but my shield held.

He threw a second magic ball at me and I decided to be on the best side of caution and simply sidestep the attack. The greenish ball passed where I had been and continued onward. I started moving again simply to trip over the body of the unconscious person I hadn't seen before and crashed to the ground. Not exactly a good thing to do.

He paused for a second, perhaps thinking about his companion beneath me, but then simply decided to throw caution to the wind and sent one more attack at me. I was in the process of disentangling myself from his unconscious partner, thinking about how I could possibly stop his attack, when I inadvertently grabbed something metallic.

"Protection."

I felt my power spiraling from within me and with a greater focus and control that I had ever managed a spherical shield appeared around me. His attack crashed against the barrier and simply dissipated, not even ruffling the shield around me. What the hell?

I looked down at what I had in my hands. It was a staff, a metallic and sleek-looking one, with some odd shape at the end and a small pulsating white jewel incrusted within that shape. It was then that I realized that the genderless computerized voice had come from this staff. I don't quite know how I came to that conclusion, but when I did I knew it to be true.

_I don't have time to think about this_ I thought to myself.

My adversary, seeing his attack had no effect started charging up some other spell to throw at me, so I did the only thing that made sense.

"Forzare!" I shouted and trusted the staff forwards. The same thing that had happened when the shield appeared happened now. My power appeared almost effortlessly, focused and controlled.

My kinetic blast caught him in the torso. This time he went through the supporting pillar. Only he didn't stop there, without even slowing down he went through another one and another one until he reached the wall on the other side of the warehouse. He went through that as well and didn't even slow down. I stayed there looking at what I done.

I had once sent a Loup Garou, basically a super-werewolf, through one wall of a building and another building in it's entirely. It wasn't easy it was something that took a lot of power, power fuelled by my emotions and in the end it left tired physically and mentally. Now I launched someone basically the same distance out of the battlefield and I wasn't even breathing hard. Star's and stones.

"Now we're talking." I said. This was simply too awesome.

I heard a shout to the side, and saw the other armored men looking into the hole to where I just sent his partner. It was a small distraction, but it was enough for the young woman to nail him with some pink blast. The man crashed to the ground, hard, and didn't even twitch.

The woman noticing this flew through the hole left by the man who had the stones to take a ride on Dresden aviations. A few seconds later she flew back in bringing the man in cords made of pink magical energy. Bounding the man she had knockout in the same manner the woman seemly nodded to herself.

With that she turned, with her staff raised high, and faced me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

For a moment I took a really good look at the woman's face.

"You're a girl." I blurt out, and then I giggled. Of course she was a little girl, what else could she had been? Either it was because of all the adrenaline, or the surrealism of the scene, or maybe perhaps because I was seeing such a serious expression in a face of what couldn't have been a teenager older that sixteen, but I simply couldn't stop giggling.

"Stop that." She shouted.

Ow, headache. Of course, I took a second look at her and started laughing. I couldn't stop that either. I am not a person to usually devolve into hysterically laughter, honestly. Of course the face she did when I started giggling didn't help my laugh at all, nor did the way she kept tapping her foot on the ground.

A few seconds later, deciding to finally take my place as an adult in this conversation I inclined my hand in her direction in the universal hand signal for _wait just for a minute_ and tried to stop my wheezing. Managed it too.

It was then Mouse arrived at my side. I shoot him a look that quite clearly asked where he had been, but then noticed the little pieces of concrete on his fur. I winced and sent him an apologizing look. He somehow managed to contain all the disappointment he felt in the look he gave me back.

"Later." I mouthed out to him. There were more important things at work for the moment. I made a mental note to buy him several of Mac's steaks.

I focused my attention again on the young girl. And God was she young. Her hair was reddish-brown, somehow much more voluminous at the front of her head than in the back, where she had her hair in two braids. Her skin was also pale, managing to seem almost paler than her white dress. A big red ribbon was in the middle of her dress and a quick look at her eyes showed them to be blue. There was no way she was evil, a part of my brain that thinks everything cute and fluffy is innocent said, unfortunately or not depending on how things pan out, the cynical part of my brain won in the end and I decided to be very cautions of the extremely powerful wizard in front of me.

While I watched her she unconsciously started to fidget a little, and I in my magnanimous ways decided to spare her nerves and start this show in the road, it was then, of course, that she decided to talk.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" She asked.

"Shouldn't I ask you that?" I shoot back.

"I was here first." She said.

"You really are a kid." My headache started to get worse. She looked at me, took a deep breath, decided to act like I should have, and calmly spoke.

"I'm Second Lieutenant Takamachi of the Time and Space Administration Bureau, who are you? And what are you doing here?" She asked once more.

I really had a terrible headache, it was as if my brain had decided to test just how much punishment it could inflict on me. I started feeling a little dizzy too, between those two things it was a comprehensible that my brain took a little in processing everything the girl said. To not say my mouth isn't faster than my neurons words started coming before I could stop them.

"What's that? Some kind of magical girls scouts?" I asked.

"Magical girl scouts!" She slowly muttered. At least that was what I heard, but here my headache got even worse, and I realized that while I've heard say that her lips didn't exactly added up to what I've heard. She started saying something else, and I could tell she was just a little irritated, but I couldn't hear her. I realized what was happening then, someone was in my head.

Oh God, someone was in my head, and seeing how the only person here with me was the girl in front of me, it was fair to assume she was responsible for it.

"Stop that." I shouted interrupting whatever she was saying, not that I could actually understand her, not with my headache.

She did stop talking, but she only stayed there looking at me, seemly startled.

"Now." I continued, but she stayed the same. I noticed her holding her staff a little tighter. The pounding on my head continued.

"Get out of my head!" I screamed and only then did my headache started to recede. She seemed to say something then, but I couldn't understand her nor did I want to. This person in front of me had just entered my head, that had hurt like very few things ever had in my life and she had broken one of the laws of magic, if she was even human, something I doubted more and more. Some part of me wanted to attack her, and the rational part of me didn't think that was such a bad thing, after all didn't she attacked me first.

What I would have done then I don't know, because in that moment a female computerized voice rang out.

"I apologize master, it seems it was my mistake." I looked to the girl's staff, which had just spoken.

_Of course it spoke Dresden, didn't yours also spoke a few minutes ago?_ I thought to myself. Yeah ok that could have been, but I'm not so used to strange things that I couldn't be startled right? And why the hell I'm asking questions to myself?

I paid a little more attention to the conversation going on in front of me. Now that my head was clear, I could at least hear the words that were spoken. The staff strangely enough was talking in perfect English, and was completely engrained in the conversation with its master. The girl was speaking in what I realized was Japanese, something which looked strange enough accounting to the fact she didn't look at all Japanese. Probably foreign parents I absently thought.

While I hadn't paid great attention to the conversation going on between staff and master, I realized they were talking about me. I couldn't follow both sides of the conversation, but for what I've heard from the staff, it was using some kind of spell on me making me able of understanding the girl's conversation, and that had somehow afflicted me. Yeah, it had hurt like a bitch. Then the staff carried on saying it could translate for its master.

Memory of the pain I've just went through passed for and I say the first thing that came to my head.

"Hell no, you're not getting in here again." I said taping one of my fingers on my heads side.

This time when it spoke the staff addressed me.

"It was not what I was suggesting," It said in its female voice. "My master could communicate telepathically with me, and I would translate out loud."

Oh. I thought for a second about that and I couldn't find anything wrong with it. Besides I wasn't seeing any other way of resolving the current problem. "Go ahead." I reluctantly said with a nod.

A few seconds later she/it spoke.

"Who are you?" While it was the same computerized voice I've heard from the staff, the way it spoke made me think of the of the girl's speech, which I figured was normal, seeing as she was now on the wheel.

"My name is Harry." I answer.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I'm a private investigator and a client of mine saw something suspicious around this place." Not quite a lie from a certain point of view. I'm a private investigator and in a way, as a grey warden, humans are kind of my clients. Ok I was twisting the truth a little, sue me.

She looked around at the hole I had thrown whoever that was.

"You're not just an investigator are you?" She asked.

"How about you, what are you doing here?" Let's see how you like to be the one interrogated.

"These men are criminals, I was sent to capture them before they escaped." She answered.

I was going to say something about how shouldn't she be at school when I remembered what she had done to those men.

"You didn't answer my question." She stated.

I hadn't actually forgotten that, just trying to see if she forgot about it, but then I realized I was being a little unfair, she did answer mine after all. Didn't mean I couldn't be a wiseass about it.

"Obviously I can do magic."

"I kind of noticed that." She said and then sighed.

I couldn't help but feel a little guilty as I looked at her, here this kid was, after fighting what for her must have been a very tiring fight, and I, instead of behaving as a grownup person, was acting like a child. Yes I see the irony in that, thank you very much.

"Look kid," "Nanoha." She interrupted me.

"Nanna, Naho ... Na-no-ha, Nanoha" I muttered under my breath. "Look Nanoha, it's late and we're both tired so let's try to do this as painless as we can, I'll start."

"My name is Harry Dresden and I am a wizard." I said.

"Is that what you call yourself? Wizard?" She asked, but then I narrowed my eyes at her and she had the decency of blushing embarrassed.

"My name in Takamachi Nanoha and I am a mage." She said.

We both stayed silent then. I have never ever heard of anyone calling himself a mage, not at least in the magical community. I looked at the staff I still had in my hands. I also had never heard of something quite like it. It wasn't the fact it was made of what appeared to be metal, while rare there were some wizards that had at sometime used metal staves, it was how the staff somehow enhanced the control of my magic. It had felt as if someone else knew what I wanted and then simply molded my magic how I wanted it. Remembering what had happened when I grabbed it, and also how Nanoha's staff seemed to somehow have sentience, or at least something close to it, I thought I might not be too far of my mark. Before I could properly think on the consequences of that Nanoha's staff voice interrupted me.

"What were you doing here?" She asked once more.

"I didn't lie to you, or at least not completely. Someone saw those guys yesterday and they felt their magic, found them suspicious. That someone told me so I could check it out." I answered.

"There's more like you?" She asked.

I was going to respond with something like 'Duh' when her words registered on my mind. She didn't know there were magic practitioners around here? Something strange was going around here, first the talking staves, then she calling herself a mage and she didn't even knew other practitioners? It was then some of her first words came to my mind.

"Wait, wait, you don't know? You said you're sent here right, so who sent you? Wait you said that already, the Space Time … that's not right."

"The Time Space Administration Bureau." She interrupted me.

"Tsab?" I asked "What the hell is the Tsab?"

She looked at me, and for a moment I felt she was evaluating me, somehow trying to find out if I she should do whatever it was she was thinking of doing. Whatever she was trying to find in me, she must have found, because she answered me.

"The Bureau is an inter-dimensional security force, formed by a joint union of several worlds." She answered.

"Space wizards?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

"Um … I… guess so, in a way." She spoke this even as she scratched her head and released a small nervous laugh, as if she comprehended just how unrealistic what she had said was.

I looked at her and I could see she was completely serious. It was then that I started to revise our conversation in my head, somehow making two plus two result in about a million. The kid was clearly insane. Or I was. What else was she going to say next, she had arrived by space-ship? I ignored the part of my brain that was nagging me that my explanation didn't account for several little details like talking staves or wizards that didn't knew anything about the supernatural, but my impetus self won in the end.

"Look kid, you definitely got hurt on the head or something…"

"I'm not lying." She loudly interrupted.

I looked at her. The kid was serious and sincerely if not for the shear absurdness of her claim, looking at her I would probably believe what she said, she didn't seem to be the lying type. But that didn't mean it was the true, it just meant she thought it was the truth. Hell, for what I know some sick supernatural being abducted the kid, told her some fairy tale, gave her a dangerous weapon and sent her on her way as some sick form of amusement. If that was so I couldn't let her go on her own way. She would end up hurting herself or others.

Or maybe she was the supernatural being, and it was doing this as some kind of sick prank on me. Maybe revenge for something? I did have lots of enemies. Was she a delusional innocent girl, a supernatural being bent on revenge or maybe, just maybe she was telling the truth? There was only something that I could do that would help clarify that. I looked into her eyes.

Many things can happen if a person makes eye contact for too long, it can carry all kinds of emotions or metaphors. Wizards in particular have an ability called soulgaze. When a wizard looks someone in the eye for an instant too long he can see the soul of that someone, he can see who that person truly is, good and bad things, desires and emotions. Sometimes the soulgaze is more specific than others, showing memories or even thoughts. It's also something that a person can't forget, a memory a person can't dull, it stays with oneself basically imprinted on the mind, and it works both ways. Just as the wizard see's someone, that someone see's the wizard.

The soulgaze started and I found myself walking down some great corridor. I looked at a mirror as I passed and realized that it was not me that appeared in it, but Nanoha Takamachi. There were paintings down the corridor, in the first one I could see Nanoha when she was a small child of perhaps five or six years old. Several emotions came to the forefront of my mind as I was seeing this, happiness, love, a sense of warmth and other several good little emotions. I realized this was Nanoha's family. In another painting appeared two kids, two pets and an adult woman. The first child was a blonde girl with a strange small red puppy in her hands. The second child was an older boy with blue-black hair. He had a ferret in his hand and he seemed to be discussing something with it. The older woman, with sea-green colored hair, looked at the children with something like motherly love. Once again I could feel Nanoha's feelings towards these people and I realized she considered them a second family.

Something at the upper corner of the painting captured my interest. A little upwards of the blonde girl some kind of dark cloud seemed to exist, and as I looked it seemed to unravel. A woman's face appeared then and as I looked at her I couldn't help but think of her as an evil stepmother from a fairy tale. It wasn't exactly my thought, I realized it was Nanoha's and I was surprised by the emotions this face brought to this seemly nice girl. She felt a deep loathing for that woman as well as something that could be called hatred. I moved down the corridor.

More paintings appeared, some of people, others of some kind of abstract images, but no painting drew me as those first two had. Another painting appeared then, where there was a group of people around a wheelchair bound girl. More feelings of friendship and love appeared then. I skipped that painting when something caught my eye. It was a small painting of what appeared to be some kind of ship, some kind of spaceship. Huh space wizards indeed. I looked down the corridor and realized there were no more paintings and darkness awaited me at the end. I looked back and noticed all other paintings had disappeared already, so I kept walking and entered that darkness. When I became aware again I was in my body.

I looked at Nanoha again, this time without fear of entering another soulgaze, two people can only soulgaze once. She looked fine if somewhat startled, that was good. Some people that I soulgazed before sometimes got a little dazed look at the end, once one person even fainted.

I thought about what I had seen in the soulgaze. I didn't felt one inch of insanity, or anything remotely similar to it in Nanoha. She was human, the soulgaze confirmed that, only human beings had souls, and the image I saw of the spaceship made me think that perhaps there was some truth to what she was saying.

After several minutes spent in silent contemplation, I spoke.

"You said these guys were criminals right? What did they do?" I asked.

"They are illegal weapons dealers," She answered "weapons like the storage device you're using. I'm … going to need it back." She said that pointing at the staff I had in my hand.

I looked down at it. The small use I gave the staff was still fresh in my mind, the way my magic seemed to do exactly whatever I wanted it too, with barely any mental effort of my part. The type of control I would need centuries to obtain, if I obtained it at all.

"There's no way I can keep this, is there?" I asked.

"No there isn't, I'm sorry." She replied.

Slowly I reached out and gave her the staff. She then did something that made the staff recede into only the small white gemstone I had seen before.

"What are you going to do now?" I asked.

"Wait for the Arthra to arrive." She answered.

I didn't know of what she was talking about, and neither did I care at that moment. I just wanted to curl up in my bed and sleep for a couple of days.

"Well I'm probably going home then." I said "I'm tired." More mentally than physically, but tired nonetheless.

"Um, ok." She said. I don't think she kind of wanted me to leave, but she didn't say anything anyway.

I started walking away, when I remembered something. Taking one of my cards from my pocket, I picked it up and gave it to her.

"If you need anything, give me a call."

With that I left.

* * *

I was in my office in the afternoon of the next day. After a night of barely any sleep, my apprentice Molly had appeared in my house at nine in the morning for practice. I had sent her away saying something important had come up and had then headed up for the office. I hadn't left yet and I wasn't even hungry. My mind couldn't stop repeating the events of the previous night.

Space wizards? Seriously? I couldn't quite wrap my mind about that one. And worse, instead of staying there and trying to find out what the hell was going on I left just because my expectations of the world got shattered, stepped on and set on fire. Ok I had a little bit of an excuse there, but I could have done better.

It was then that I heard some kind of sound to my right. I looked on and seemly from nowhere something that looked very much like the image of a television appeared.

"Hello I'm … it's not working right." Came a voice from the image.

Some more voices were heard off-screen.

"There's no one there Amy." Said the young man on screen.

Some more angry words.

"I'm telling you it's not …"

"You're backwards." I interrupted.

The man on the screen made a double-take.

"Excuse-me?"

"You're turned to the wrong side." I said.

The man gave a look to someone off-screen and then suddenly the image disappeared, and the reappeared looking at me.

"I apologize for that," He said "It seems he have some difficulty scanning you properly."

"I kind of tend to have that effect on technology." I said. Sure after sentient staves, space wizards and spaceships what exactly is strange about a free floating television?

"You didn't seem to have any adverse effect on our devices last night." He argued back.

Here the automated response system my brain had engaged on disengaged.

"Wait, those were technologic? I thought they're magic." I asked.

"They're both." He answered.

Before I could do anything else he introduced himself.

"I'm Admiral Chrono Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau."

I said the first thing that came to my mind. "Kind of young to be an Admiral, don't you think."

"I'll let you know that I did it on my own without any…" Here he stopped and looked to the side and narrowed his eyes at someone. I figured I kind of hit a sore spot there. He turned back to me.

"I would like to personally thank you for helping our … agent last night."

"You're welcome." I said.

"I would also like to give you a proposition Mister Dresden." He said "How would you like to personally see a spaceship?"

* * *

In the shadows between two big and bulky warehouses a man appeared. Seemly looking like a fifty or fifty year old human, with dark hair sporting a little bit of grey the man looked on to the entrance of a somewhat distant warehouse.

A car passed then, an old Volkswagen Beetle which might have been at some point in the past of only one color, although which color that was would be difficult to decipher.

The being who sometimes called himself Mark Simmons watched on as the driver of the old car parked it outside a warehouse where a big hole had been made in one of the walls. Wizard Harry Dresden walked out of his car and entered in the warehouse, where the being knew he would find Nanoha Takamachi and two others.

A feel of magic later and the being knew that those four persons were someplace other than the warehouse.

_More than a thousand years,_ the being thought to itself.

_Perhaps I should pay a visit, _it thought looking directly to where the spaceship Arthra would be in space.

**End of Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Sometimes I really think my life would be a lot better with a little less excitement in it.

After arriving at the Arthra, using some kind of teleportation, Admiral Chrono had been nothing but considerate, talkative and simply plain nice. Despite this, he had somehow managed to dodge every single enquiry I threw at him without even losing his smile. It was a little impressive.

In certain ways it reminded me of occasions where I was forced to play politics in the supernatural world. Everyone would smile, nod, talk and in the end say absolutely nothing at all, especially if they were Sidhe.

While certain past diplomatic attempts on my part resulted what in some people would consider a very undiplomatic string of burned buildings and bodies, I had an excuse. They're inhuman monsters.

Admiral Chrono wasn't an inhuman monster. Or at least he didn't look like one, and I don't mean that in the physical sense. There were some supernatural beings that could look otherworldly beautiful and perfect in body, but were bloodthirsty monsters all the same. What I meant was that the man in front of me didn't feel like an inhuman monster, there was no killing intent, no overreaching cruelty or any other emotion that I would normally be able to discern in a supernatural critter. Not to say that there weren't some beings that could easily, very easily in fact, fool me and seem like a regular nice guy, but none of them would usually go to these lengths to do it.

Which as unbelievable as that sounded meant Chrono was probably what he seemed, just a nice space wizard trying to found out what he could about me and whatever magical groups exist on earth.

He was trying to find whatever he could out of me; he wasn't obvious about it, often using off-hand questions as if they didn't matter, but I could see the underlined curiosity on his voice, or more particularly on his staff's voice. Which as just as well, seeing I took a page out of his book and dodged every question. I was a little less refined in it compared to him.

So it was that way that more than two hours after my arrival on the spaceship, after a tour around where I spent more times in corridors than in any other place, we had talked about everything but what we truly wanted and the weather. It was a just little ironic.

"It seems, Mister Dresden that our conversation is going around in circles." Said Admiral Chrono.

"Not that any one of us has made anything to change that." I said.

"True," He acknowledge with a nod. "But I think we can both understand it's not exactly an easy matter to discuss, is it?" He asked.

This time I was the one who nodded at him. No it wasn't an easy matter to discuss at all.

"But I think we will have to eventually breach the subject, Mister Dresden." He continued.

"Of course," I said "Whenever you want to start talking Admiral, I'm all ears."

He did. I was so stunned by his response to my smart-ass remark that I almost didn't hear what he said.

What he said wasn't much different than what the kid, Nanoha, had said earlier. The Time Space Administration Bureau basically seemed to fill the roles of both the military and the police across several worlds. From apprehending criminals, like what happened last night, to finding and containing hazardous magical relics, his words not mine. It also seemed that a very big part or even the entire Bureau was constituted by wizards or as they called them mages.

As he talked I realized he actually saying anything that could be in any way used against him or the Bureau, just generic information that could probably be told by any inhabitant of one of those worlds belonging to the TSAB. It was understandable, he didn't knew anything concrete about me or whatever other magical beings existed on earth, still it was better than nothing and if the Admiral wasn't lying the TSAB appeared to be relatively good guys. Of course, things don't usually are as simple as this, especially in anything involving politics of any kind, and I should make no mistake about it an organization like the Bureau would be ripe with all kinds of politics.

Kind of like the White Council in that regard.

He talked for a while more and then we spent a few moments in silence.

"I think that your turn for talking Mister Dresden." He said to me.

"Why do I get the feeling that what you just told is something you teach your kids what school?" I asked.

"Because it kind of is," He said with a smile. "But I said I think I said what really matters. Things like names or magical practices aren't actually important for this discussion, what does matters is what me and my organization stand for and how they affect you and your planet, Mister Dresden. I think that I clarified that for you. We came here because to apprehend several of our criminals that tried to hide in your planet."

"If that's so, why did you invite me here?" I asked "You could have simply congratulated me and then leave; there was no need of inviting me up here."

Not that I had minded the visit, not at all. I mean who would refuse the opportunity to see a real live spaceship? But that he went to all this trouble probably meant that he wanted something more.

"I admit that's true Mister Dresden, but I do have a small interest on this planet." Before I could interrupt him he continued. "A little over five years ago, for two different occasions, some very dangerous magical relics showed on this planet. I was part of the people sent to retrieve them. We could say I got a little found of this planet."

"Is that so?" I asked. Could it really be as simple as that, I wondered. Looking at him I don't think he was actually lying, but perhaps there was more to the truth than that.

"It seems it's your turn Mister Dresden."

Well fair is fair, but that didn't meant I had to divulge more than the basic of Earth's supernatural community. After all, he did the same to me.

"On Earth there's an organization, the White Council, that's responsible for regulating the human wizards, mages as you call them. At the same time we try to keep humanity in general protected from other magical beings."

"You're a member then?" He asked.

"Yes I am." I said. "I'm what basically amounts to a police officer, although sometimes we have to take a more militaristic role."

"You said you protected humanity from other magical beings, how so?" He asked.

I looked at him. "There are some beings down there that have no respect or appreciation for humanity, the White Council tries to diminish the impact these beings have over regular humans."

"Diminish the impact?" He asked with a serious look on his face.

"It's not as easy as it sounds." I answered.

"Perhaps we could help you." He said after a small pause.

"Perhaps." I said back.

He stayed silent a few more minutes, Chrono seemly lost on the thoughts in his head.

"How did you hide yourself from our scanners?" He asked out of the blue.

"I didn't." I said.

"I find that a little harder to believe." He said "Especially because as soon as you set a foot inside the ship, our internal systems managed to localize you just fine."

"I said I don't know. Usually technology doesn't work that well around us…"

"Ours seems to work just fine around you," He interrupted "I just find a little hard to believe you have no idea how you conveniently managed to stay hidden from us."

"I think I can help you with that." A voice interrupted us.

Both of us turned to face whoever interrupted us. Has I was turning I discreetly readied my kinetic rings to fire if necessary. I noticed out of the corner of my eye as Chrono pointed his staff at the figure. It was then that I noticed who was in front of me.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Chrono asked, reminding me of Nanoha's words the other night.

At the same time I spoke. "Simmons?"

There in front of us stood the man I knew as Mark Simmons.

"You know him?" asked Admiral Chrono me without taking his eyes of Simmons.

"No, well yes… Kind of. He was the person who told me about those men in the warehouse, but I only knew him of sight before that." I answered.

Chrono took two steps forward. "Who are you?" He asked once again.

Simmons looked at Chrono and his extended staff and spoke. "You're a very powerful mage Chrono Harlaown, and Durandal is a very nice staff, but I'm a little out of your league."

His voice rang clear and loud throughout the corridor and somehow managed to have an echo where no voice should.

Both Chrono and I were startled at his voice. I managed to recover first.

"Who are you?" I asked in what I hoped was a more diplomatic voice compared to Chrono. Unfairly mine didn't echo.

"Can't you tell?" Simmons asked me amused. I was in the process of returning a very well thought wiseass remark when he changed form for a second.

"Uriel?" I blurt out without thinking. The form that had been quickly showed was the one that the archangel had used once before, when I met him for the first time.

"You know him?" Chrono asked me again.

"Well … kind of I met him once before, wouldn't say I know him exactly." I answered. "What did you meant when you told us you could help us before?" I asked this time speaking to Uriel.

"I'm the one who has, let's say jammed, your sensors." He said to Chrono.

"What?""Why?" Both of us asked at the same time.

"I did so because it played into my interests." Uriel said to me. Chrono opened his mouth but Uriel's voice interrupted him. "It was a very easy thing to do, as most things are for a being like me, Mid-Childean."

I saw Chrono beside me take a step back looking in something like shock at the archangel in front of us.

"Mid-Childa. That's the name of his, and in a way their Bureau's planet of origin." Uriel said to me.

"How do you know that?" Chrono asked shaken.

"Do you want to answer him?" Uriel asked me.

"Uh … Beings like Uriel have an ability called Intellectus." I said to Chrono. "Think of it as partial omniscience, everything he wants to know he instinctively knows."

"Not quite correct," Uriel said. "But for what you can understand of it, yes that's a good way of explaining it."

"So he just knows these things because he thought about them?" Chrono asked me.

"In a way," Uriel answered. "Although I could recognize the magical style anywhere even though I haven't been to Mid-Childa in a few decades."

"How could you possible ever been on Mid-Childa?" Chrono asked.

"The same way I find myself here now."

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "I mean aren't you supposed to only appear to like this when you're" Here I searched for the right word. "Counteracting the guy downstairs?"

"Who says I'm not?" He asked me back.

It's was then that a screen-thingy like what appeared before at my office appeared on the air besides Chrono. Both Chrono and I looked at it for just a moment, but when I looked back Uriel already wasn't there.

Chrono spoke rapidly to the screen and someone on the other side responded. A short time after the screen disappeared once again and Chrono spoke to me.

"Let's go there's something to show you."

As we walked Chrono asked. "Who or what was that?"

"An archangel." I answered.

"A what?" He asked.

"You don't know what angels are?"

He shook his head negatively. "We will talk later, we're here."

Here seemed to be what could only be described as the ship bridge. I followed Chrono until we arrived at the end of a raised platform. When we arrived Chrono touched something on a console and some kind of hologram appeared in front of us. In it appeared the Earth and with seemed to be countless small dots all across the globe.

"What's that?" I asked.

Chrono hesitated for a second before responding. "The external sensors are working again," He said. "Those are the people on your planet with some degree of magical ability."

I looked at the screen, in it what seemed to be millions of different dots appeared. The numbers of wizards on Earth wasn't even close to that, meaning even those who were too weak to become Council appeared here. Following that thought came another one that made my heart start thundering in my chest. Were all of the humans? What if the dots on the map included things like vampires, faeries or any other magical being? Could the map distinguish them? I thought about that for a second, depending on the limitations of the map, with that kind of information the White Council could have crushed the Red Court during the war. They could have found the Red's without difficulty see their military mobilizations and find the vampires anywhere on the planet. This was big and way out of my league. I paused for a second. "You've said you could help, before Uriel appearing you've said you could help us."

"Perhaps." He cautiously said.

"I need to make a call." I said.

* * *

After arriving home I made the call I needed.

Ebenezar McCoy was one of the most powerful wizards on Earth, and also a member of the senior council of the White Council. The senior council members were the de facto rulers of the White Council, there were seven of them and if a majority of them agreed in something, that something usually happened.

Ebenezar had become a member of the senior council a few years ago in order to help save my life. I had been outwitted once by members of the Red Court of Vampires and I in a somewhat rash decision exacted my revenge on them, killing them. That had started the war between the vampires and wizards.

Sometime after the beginning of the war the Red Court tried to negotiate a cease-fire, and the only thing they asked in exchange was my life. In a time were wizards were afraid of the coming war and many of them blamed me for it, Ebenezar took the place of one senior member that had been killed by vampires, in order to at least give me chance of surviving the occurring events.

Ebenezar did it even hating Council politics, but he had been my mentor after I first broke the laws of magic, and even at the time he had saved my life in agreeing to take me in after I killed my first mentor. I later discovered he had been my mother's mentor and he blamed himself for how my mother turned out.

So I called him. I didn't actually told him anything specific, but I said it was important that he came to Chicago, and that something very important was going down right now. He said he would be here in the morning.

After that I did the only thing I could, I went to sleep. I had a very important day ahead of me.

I woke up early next day, surprisingly relaxed for once. I ate my breakfast and then simply waited.

In was about middle of the morning that someone knocked at my door. I stood up and disabling the wards around the door opened it, on the other side of it stood Ebenezar McCoy. He was a short stocky man, and had basically no hair left on his head.

He offered me his hand. "Hoss, it's good to see you." He said.

"It's good to see you too sir." I greeted back.

"You're over your head again hoss?" He asked.

"I think this time yes, sir. I'm a little over my head."

We didn't stay much time at home, after a few minutes we're already in my car going to the same warehouse where I first found Nanoha. I didn't told him much during the travel, only that something very important was going down and I had no idea how to do what needed to be done. He didn't ask any questions.

We arrive at the warehouse sometime later, strangely enough there wasn't anyone around and for a second I wondered if there was actually any work going on in any of the surrounding warehouses. Ebenezar and I left the car and entered to the hole the fight two nights ago had left there.

Inside the warehouse were two mages from the TSAB, the way Admiral Chrono had left for me to contact him. I nodded at them and they nodded back.

"What's this Harry?" Ebenezar asked.

"Part of what's going down sir." I answered. I approached one of the present mages and extended my hand, in response he gave the second staff he was carrying. "I need you to see something."

I gave him the staff. "Use it." I said.

He looked at me very seriously for a second and then he looked at the other two persons present at the warehouse. "Hoss?" He asked.

"They know about magic sir, they can do it themselves. Just please try the staff, everything will be explained after."

He looked at me again and then looked at the staff. He passed his hand throughout the staff, commencing in the top of it and slowly going down. He did the same thing once more and then looked at me. Whatever he saw in my face convinced him of something so he thrust his staff to the side and said some word I didn't understand. Absolutely nothing happened.

I stayed there looking on with some underlined nervousness as Ebenezar proceed to try more and more spells without any kind of success. That couldn't be I thought to myself, the staff worked perfectly fine for me, so why couldn't it work for Ebenezar just the same? It was then that an idea formed in my mind.

"Sir," I said. Ebenezar looked at me from where he was still trying to make the staff work. "Try force sir. It was what worked for me."

He looked at me for some more time, but then he trusted the staff at the direction of a small stone that was sitting near the wall. I was looking into his face during the entire time, so it was easy for me to see his eyes widen as the staff did for him the same that it had previously done for me. He repeated the gesture again and again, only to be met with the same results.

His eyes narrowed and then he started trying different spells again, only to be met with more failure. I was going to interrupt him when something did happen; Ebenezar used some spell and what could be called a beam of red light launched itself from the top of the staff and collided with the ground. When the beam faded again I could see a hole where the beam had impacted, it went diagonally through the ground and I couldn't see where it ended. I looked at Ebenezar.

He was also looking at the ground with something like surprise. He saw me and said.

"It wasn't supposed to be like that, that's not what this spell does, but whatever is in here" Here he shook the staff a little. "Twisted the spell into this. Where did you find this hoss?" He asked me.

"It's kind of a long story sir."

"I'm all ears hoss."

I told him everything that had happened the last few days, about the men's and Nanoha's fight, about using the staff for the first time and then I told him about the Bureau and the spaceship above orbit. He reacted better than I hoped for.

"Spaceships? Wizards from outer space? Are you out of your dammed mind boy?"

"No sir." I answered.

"Well it damn looks like it."

Ebenezar walked a few feet to the side and only when he stopped did I realize what he had done, he put himself in a position where he could both see me and the two other mages. This was bad, if for some reason Ebenezar thought I wasn't me or that I had been brainwashed somehow he might decide to shoot first and ask questions later, and I doubted the two mages and I could actually stop him.

"Sir, I know what it sounds like, it's completely mad, I know, but it's the truth. I saw their spaceship with my own eyes, I made a soulgaze with one of them, and you seen that staff, tell me have you ever heard of anything like it?" I pleaded with him.

"Actually yes hoss, I've seen things similar to this." he pointed at the staff. He looked at my eyes then and I could see some deep pain in them. Then his eyes narrowed and I realized what he was doing, he was using his Third Sight, the ability every wizard has that allows him see the truth of things. I allowed him to See me in it and I noticed him relaxing a little. He hadn't been certain if it was me or not.

"I hadn't sir, and that's not the only thing that happened. When I was up there… Uriel appeared sir, he spoke to us and I doubt he would have appeared and not dispelled any vision or trick they were doing on me."

"How do you know they didn't mess with your head boy, or how do you even know if it was Uriel or not?" He asked.

"I've met him before sir, during my last run in with the Denarians."

"Doesn't change the fact they could have been messing with your head boy."

Problem was his argument could actually be true. Anything I was thinking I saw up there could have been a very well done mind-rape, in this world of magic and shadows it would certainly be possible. I didn't think so, but I understood my mentor's point of view. The only way to perhaps convince him would be to take him into the spaceship itself.

As if he had read my mind Admiral Chrono used that same instant to teleport inside the warehouse.

"Good day." Said Chrono's staff computerized voice. "I am Admiral Chrono of the Time Space Administration Bureau."

"You're the one behind this." Ebenezar said looking at Chrono.

"If you mean this reunion of sorts, then yes both I and Mister Dresden are behind it." Chrono said unruffled. "My men tell me there's some difficulty in convincing you of the truth sir, so I came here to personally escort you to my ship."

"You've expect me to believe that?" Ebenezar asked.

"Yes."

Ebenezar looked seriously at Chrono for some time, and I wondered if he was using his Third Sight again. Finally he spoke.

"If that's that, then let us go."

Chrono nodded to the old man and then gestured for him to come closer. Seeing what was going to happen I stepped forward.

"No hoss, you're not coming." Ebenezar said to me.

"What? Sir…"

"You're going to stay here until we come back hoss and if I don't find what I'm supposed to…" Here his words trailed out. He extended his hand, used a word of power and darkness from the shadows of the warehouse simply reached and condensed themselves into a staff of dark twisted wood.

I realized what that was then, it was the Blackstaff. The Blackstaff was both the name of the staff and the title of the only person in the entire White Council that had authorization to used dark magic.

"I will get my answers about what's going on hoss, one way or the other."

I could see behind him that both Bureau mages were intimidated and had taken several steps back.

In was in that moment that both him and Chrono were teleported out, presumably to the spaceship.

* * *

It took almost three hours before Ebenezar returned. When he came back he was alone and no longer had the Blackstaff with him. He looked at me and signaled in the direction of the car.

We got in and went to my house; we also didn't talk during the entire way. Only when we entered the house did my mentor spoke something.

"Something to drink hoss, something strong if possible." He said.

Lacking something stronger the only thing alcoholic I had to give him was one of Mac's dark bottles that I had on my ice box. I took one for both of us.

We spent several minutes in silence simply drinking.

"This is big hoss." He said.

"Yes sir, it is." I said. "Did you see the map sir?"

"Yes." He said.

"That could help us win the war."

"Perhaps hoss it depends on its restrictions."

"Do you mean if it shows vampires?" I asked.

"Not only that. Does it show vampires? Do wards manage to stop whatever it is that makes the map tick? There are many important things we have to consider about it." He answered. "Makes me wonder how you manage to find so much trouble." He continued with a laugh.

"It's a gift sir." I answered smiling.

"Yes," He said. "Just like your mother." He continued before I could truly dwell on thought's of the mother I never knew. "We need to act fast hoss."

"What do you propose we do?" I asked.

"We need to contact the senior council for one."

"Sir…" I interrupted.

"I know about the traitor in the Council Harry, but we need the senior council on this, or at least four of them." He said.

Four senior members were what were needed to have a majority in the senior council.

"Who are you going to call?" I asked.

"Injun Joe for one and we can't keep the Merlin away from something like this." He said.

Injun Joe was a Native American member of the Council, a person that I tentatively considered an ally. The Merlin was someone neither I nor Ebenezar liked, we clashed several times over White Council matters and he could be a right bastard, but in the end he was the leader of the senior council, as well as the most powerful wizard on Earth, both magically and politically.

"I suppose I should also call…"

"The Gatekeeper." I interrupted.

"Rashid?" Ebenezar asked me and then thought about it for a minute. "If he doesn't know about it already."

The Gatekeeper was the most mysterious wizard of the White Council. I didn't know much about him, only that his work had something to do with guarding the Outer Gates. He had already helped m sometimes before, even when he wasn't supposed to. He also had the annoying gift of knowing things he shouldn't.

We spent a few more minutes in contemplation and then Ebenezar stood.

"Well hoss, I'm going to make the arrangements for it."

"Need any help sir?" I asked.

"No." He opened the door and then turned to me. "Be ready hoss, I feel things are going change soon, for better or worse."

He left.


End file.
